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about

I wrote this when I started turning from contemporary instrumental composition back towards “folky” songwriting, around 2006. Being one of the first songs out of the gate, it created a nice slipstream for its successors but wore itself out in the process. The lyrics are a barely-revised journal entry.
The recording I put together in subsequent years. Emily brought a great energy to this on the 5-string, and I added banjo and a little percussion to get it moving a bit. There was a nice upright bass part from Jason as well, but it unfortunately it succumbed to Arbitrary Digital Immolation.

lyrics

BUS STATION

Waited an hour at the bus station,
weary from working.
Some guy is washing out his clothes in the bathroom
while I'm trying to rinse my hands.
Was it a landlord? A hospital bill?
Don't look at me like that! I know--
it wouldn't take much.

I fell asleep on the bus
(this guy was watching me)--
I woke up lost.
Now, I don't know, but I tell myself
I am no longer young,
don't need a lot from the world.
But I can't escape this feeling of being drawn
backwards through the streets.

All right, I guess I'd be crazy
just to accept that I got no power.
What troubles me are these hideous dreams of impact.
I'm walking home with a rose in my hand
like an albatross again,
to mark the time.

credits

from No Outlet (volume 1: 2007​-​2013), released January 7, 2020

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Jack O' The Clock Oakland, California

JACK O' THE CLOCK "presents a fine lesson on what it means to write songs that are at once approachable and human while simultaneously being incredibly profound in terms of timbre, depth of emotion, and harmonic complexity," Progulator.

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